“Of course,” cried the General. “He’s to stop, eh, Seaborough?”
“I should regret it, if he left,” said my uncle.
“To be sure you would, and I should miss him. Don’t expel him, Doctor.”
“I? I should only be too glad if he stays.”
“Then that’s all right,” said the General. “Ah, here is Mrs Brown.”
He crossed to place a chair for her, and then stood looking from one to the other.
“Yes,” he said, “that’s it. Ladies, will you honour a solitary old man with your company to dinner at my place this evening? Doctor, will you bring your wife? Seaborough and Mrs Burr, pray come over with me now, and, if the Doctor does not mind, I should like to take these two boys back with us.”
Consent was given directly, and the rest of that day was spent in a manner which made me pretty well forget the troubles which had gone before.